Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Wolf’s Secret Twins Chapter 3

Slater

White noise filled the room. Both ears twitched from the irritation, but I ignored the oncoming tinnitus and focused on the woman who was walking away from me. Gods, did I love to watch her go. The way she had filled out over the past ten years was insane-in a good way, definitely. That motherly figure looked damn good on her.

What confused me was the way she had snapped at me. Her eyes held so many secrets, so many things she apparently hadn't shared with anyone else. Since our history was so intertwined, I knew her individual expressions as well as I knew her quips. I had even anticipated a few to make an appearance.

But that wasn't what had happened. Instead, she had broken down. She'd clung to her children. She'd begged her alpha not to be paired with me.

I clenched my fists at my side. After what her family did, she has the audacity to reject me?

More confusion slid into place, causing my muscles to quake while I tried to keep steady ground. Though I had done everything in my power to convey the irritation I felt, something else broke through the surface of my contempt, something deeply unexpected. It was l**t.

That shoulder-check wasn't an accident, yet I couldn't tell which one of us had done it. There was a wolf inside me dying for physical touch again, so much so that he was willing to initiate it through aggression. Not that I would ever lay my hands upon Sara-or Virginia, whatever-in a way that she wouldn't specifically request.

However much I wanted to resist her body, it called to me, urging me to act and take matters into my own hands. I didn't like being told what to do. Being paired with Virginia agitated me-yet being abruptly denied that pairing made my anger triple in size. Nobody would keep my desires at bay. Not even my parents could have done that. History told a story of two people who were drawn to each other in ways that were forbidden. Was that history about to repeat itself?

I turned to the stage. It wasn't my problem anymore. She wasn't my problem anymore. The alphas were likely trying to think of someone to match her with so her rejection wouldn't eat her alive. Those kids needed a stable home, and I wasn't about to take on someone else's kids as my own.

That went well, didn't it? I thought while watching everyone flood to the doors. Jerry Springer couldn't have possibly done better.

Disappointment settled in my gut like a bad steak. Something about the way she had checked me as she passed bothered me and enticed me at the same time. Old-school Virginia was notorious for starting shit where there was no shit. That had to be the reason that weirdo Bentley had been staring at her, and why he'd chosen to expose her as a Walsh.

Which should have been a good thing. But something about it was bothering me. Something was telling me I needed to follow Virginia and her kids home.

Noise exploded in the hallway. Shouts followed. I raced into the crowd to search the area for discord, noticing that two men were in a heated debate about what had just transpired. No doubt they were trying to just get some of that unfiltered energy out of their bodies, but fighting wasn't going to get it done. Shifting would be better. Somebody had to talk some sense into them. For more free novels, visit FindNovel.net

When I saw Troy and Blake break through the crowd, relief washed over me. I sensed that they would handle the situation, so I didn't need to stick around. But if they were here, then who would be walking with Virginia and her children?

Panic wrapped its icy fingers around my heart. I shoved my way through the crowd, fighting the urge to shift with so many people crowding around me. We were packed like sardines in this hallway. If the alphas didn't get their members under control, it would surely turn into a mob. Men I had seen flock around the alphas jumped into action, one of them looking like he was related to Troy. That must have been the Bravecrest crew.

Once I got through the hallway, I stumbled out of the double doors and whipped my head around. I spun in a circle about three times, trying to sense Virginia, my nose wiggling viciously to catch her scent on the breeze. I stood still, closed my eyes, and angled my nose to the sky.

Sea salt and berries smacked me in the nostrils. That was her-that was Virginia. She had used this sea salt hairspray back in the day, something that made her blonde hair frizz out around her face in a sort of controlled explosion. She called it emo. I called it a

mess.

My eyes snapped open and I sprinted to the left, using my instincts to locate the woman who had broken my heart and my family. Why was I chasing after her? Why did I want to shake the ship when my alphas clearly wanted to keep everything under control? Why are you being rebellious, Slater?

This wasn't the time for my mother's voice to activate in the back of my brain. Nobody else was going to protect Virginia, so it had to be me. That was how it had been in the past-and that had gotten me burned. Yet I couldn't ignore the persistent feeling in my gut that something was truly wrong.

And I had to do something about it.

Dirt and rocks skittered away from my boots, kicking up dust in my wake as I barreled down the neighborhood road. Somebody squealed. Two children started yelling. I doubled down and ran faster, nearly shifting as my vision tunneled and locked on the four figures ahead.

As more details came into view, I realized Bentley was trying to grab Virginia, and her children were growling for him to bug off. I lowered my head and rammed into Bentley's ribs, sending the fucker flying ten feet away and into someone's flower bed. The twins jumped up and down while Virginia stared on in shock. Me, well, I was barely affected by the encounter, my head as hard as a damn rock since the war. (And from the headbanging experience too.)

I wiped invisible dirt from my arms and then shrugged my shoulders. "Need an escort?" Naturally, I extended my elbow to her, but she didn't seem inclined to take it. She was too busy staring at Bentley.

What in the world was so appealing about a bozo with a bad nose who was getting into her business?

"Sara?"

Her eyes went so wide that I thought they would become planets with their own orbit. "My name is Virginia now."

One of her twins stepped forward. "Thanks, mister. No one seems to like us here."

My heart practically melted at the child's claim. If what I had witnessed back at the rec center was evidence, then these three had been facing trouble all along, even without the dirty rumor of a deceptive Walsh being around.

I looked at Virginia, thinking about how I had corrected myself a while back with her name, and considering how she must have felt at this moment in time, staring at this man who used to know her. Who technically still knew her. How did she feel?

My eyes dropped to her chest where her heart thudded like it was dying for oxygen-rich blood. "Virginia."

She snapped her fingers. "Slater."

I coughed and met her gaze, drawing my best grin on my lips like a cartoonist. "Yes, Virginia-well, it's fitting, isn't it? It's a charming name."

She squinted. "I don't trust you."

"The sentiment is shared. Believe me."

I winked at Bentley who was watching on with a mixture of horror and what appeared to be jealousy. Whatever it was, I couldn't imagine his face getting any redder as he struggled to stand in the muddy flower bed. A door squeaked open and an old woman with wrinkled-up desert-brown skin and a large broom scuffled out to the yard.

Bentley attempted to apologize only to be met by the bristled end of the broom and a whole lot of curses shouted in Spanish.

The twins laughed. Virginia covered her mouth and stared at the ground, doing a horrible job of containing her amusement, and barely holding back tears too.

I nodded at the road. "Come on, then. Before you start any more trouble, Pinky McGee."

"Ugh, I do not miss those nicknames."

"What? You didn't miss me?"

I bit my tongue. Possession-that was what had just happened. A demon had possessed my mouth and forced me to spit out a question that I didn't even mean to ask about something that I didn't even mean to think about. Truly, it must have been possession. That was the only explanation.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and invited her kids to start walking with her. "I, uh, haven't thought about you in a while." She glanced at the twin with the long hair as black and messy as her mama's. "You know, it's been a while." "Since your granddaddy did what he did?" I snorted. "Sure has been, Ginny."

"You haven't changed much."

I eyed her carefully. "You changed a whole lot."

We wandered past Bentley who was still getting accosted in Spanish.

I nodded toward the drama. "We don't even need Telemundo to get some good novelas around here, huh?"

The girl twin giggled. When her mama shot her a hard look, she stopped out of respect but kept on giggling quietly when Virginia looked away.

"Yeah, thanks for that, by the way," Virginia said in a low voice. She rubbed her right arm hard. "Bentley has been, uh..."

Instinctively, I reached for her arm to inspect it. "Has he been bothering you?"

"A bit."

The boy twin hopped out from the other side of his mama and started walking backwards as he faced us. "That mean man has been following us around a lot this week. Mama keeps telling him to leave us alone, but he won't."

I raised my left eyebrow. "Really? Have you told either of the alphas?"

Virginia practically shrank into herself. "Well, I-"

The girl twin shook her head. "No, Mama said she didn't want any trouble."

"How did he know who you were?" I asked.

That halted her in her tracks. And really, I hadn't meant to do such a thing, but she was turning now onto a stone path that led to a modest single-family home with a bright red mailbox. Denton was written in script on the side along with the number for the house,

221.

Virginia rubbed the side of the mailbox and pointed to the front door. "Alright, buggies. Inside." "But, Mom, the Five Nights-"

That boy cut his sentence short so fast and rushed to the front door with his sister, neither of them sparing a glance at their mama as they obeyed her sharp glare. I couldn't help but huff with amusement as I heard the screen door slap the frame and the door squeal next.

I took to checking her arm again. No bruises. But that didn't mean there wouldn't be some later. "I'll make sure Bentley doesn't bother you again."

"And how do you plan on doing that? By excommunicating my family to another state?"

"You don't have to be a bitch about it, Ginny."

Her lips tightened together and that Monroe piercing-which was definitely new, but definitely cute as hell on her-glinted in the afternoon light. Storm clouds roamed overhead accompanied by a deep rumble. More rain. Just what we needed while we were in the middle of renovating...well, just about every building on both pack lands.

I sighed while shoving my hands in my pockets. "Listen, if you don't want help, fine. But I'm still going to talk to the alphas and make sure that a*****e doesn't harass your kids."

Her eyes shimmered like she was about to cry. It seemed like she wanted to say something because her throat kept clenching up, but maybe that was just her trying to keep her emotions under control. She'd never been good at that.

"Fine," she hissed. "I better not see you hanging around."

"And why the hell would I do that?"

She grinned, the appearance of that grin suddenly making her look sinister. "You always want what you can't have, Slater. That's why you went after me."

And without another word, she shimmied up the stone path, popped open the screen door, and went inside. Sass and ass, that was her style now, huh? Well, I had to guess that she was looking to play games if she was acting that way. She didn't even seem as mad as she acted, though maybe that had changed too. Maybe a lot about her had changed that I didn't realize.

Still, there were things that hadn't changed-like the way my cock was begging me to lure her out to the woods so I could have a piece of what I'd had many years ago. One taste would sate my curiosity, and then I could keep it moving, keep my head down, keep chugging toward the finish line ahead.

Though I had to admit I wasn't even sure what was waiting for me at the finish line. All I did was work construction, drink with the boys, and go home at the end of the day. There wasn't anything else. There wasn't anyone else.

But there was Virginia. There were her kids. There was a stalker maniac trying to take her down for something or other. Maybe she'd screwed him over. Maybe he was crazy. Didn't matter to me as long as I got to do what I needed to do without anybody telling me what that was. Rebellion or not, Virginia and her kids needed to be protected.

So, I was going to plant my happy ass on the porch and watch the street for Bentley.